Solar batteries converting solar energy into electric energy are core devices in solar energy generation. Currently, solar batteries are used in various fields to supply electricity to electrical or electronic products, houses, buildings, etc.
Processes for manufacturing solar batteries include an electroplating process and an etching process. Such processes require materials for selectively masking certain regions of a silicon substrate and forming an insulation film on solar cells. In the related art, such materials are usually applied to substrates by screen printing methods. In this case, however, it is difficult to obtain fine line widths necessary for solar batteries.
In addition, there have been attempts made to use thin silicon substrates for reducing manufacturing costs of solar batteries. In this case, if a screen printing method is used, solar cells may be easily damaged or broken due to patterns being formed through physical contact in the screen printing method.
Therefore, there is increasing interest in techniques for forming patterns using non-contact type inkjet printing methods instead of contact type screen printing methods. That is, electrode patterns, etching-film patterns, or insulation-film patterns having fine line widths can be formed by a non-contact method if an inkjet printing method is used.
However, conventional ink compositions for inkjet printing may be highly viscous, and thus it may be difficult to form a pattern on an uneven silicon substrate using such a conventional ink composition in a solar battery manufacturing process because the ink composition may flow across the uneven silicon substrate. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an ink composition that can be used to form a pattern on an uneven silicon substrate in an inkjet printing process.